The standard phlebotomy order of draw is: blood culture bottles first, then the light-blue (citrate) tube, then serum tubes (red or gold/SST), then green (heparin), then lavender (EDTA), then gray (fluoride/oxalate). Drawing in this order keeps one tube's additive from contaminating the next.
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From first to last, the standard order is:
Some facilities also place royal-blue (trace metals), tan, yellow, or pink tubes at specific points. Your lab's test directory is the final word.
When the needle passes through a tube's rubber stopper, a microscopic amount of that tube's additive can cling to it and carry into the next tube. Draw a heparin tube before a light-blue coagulation tube and that carried-over heparin can skew the coagulation result — a classic cause of a redraw. The order is built to move from "no additive" toward additives that would most disrupt the next test.
A common one is "Young Bodies Really Should Get Large Grains" — Yellow (culture), Blue, Red, SST/gold, Green, Lavender, Gray. Mnemonics are great for exam day, but the phlebotomists who never mix up a tricky order are the ones who understand carryover and know which additive belongs to each tube.
The order can shift for winged (butterfly) sets, discard/waste tubes, special microbiology, and some send-outs, and a few facilities publish their own order. Follow your employer's approved policy and your laboratory's test directory whenever local practice differs from a general chart.
Phlebotomy Toolkit shows the order of draw with color-coded tubes and links each tube to its tests, additive, and handling — so the sequence sticks. It's offline, so it's there at the draw chair or on the bus to your exam.
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